

^N A.I3DIIESS 



IIKLIVF.RET) I'.EFOKE TllK 



^ocietj of the \mi of the Cumlier'Iaqd, 



SEVENTEENTH REUNION, SEPTEMBER 16, 1885. 



GBAND RAPIDS, MICHIGAN. 



ALSO, 



REMARKS AT THE BANQUET. 



By R. D. MUSSEY. 



CINCINNATI: 
EGBERT CLARKE & 00. 

1886. 



1 



A.]sr a.ddre:ss 



DELIVERED BEFORE THE 



^ocietil of the i^Mi} of Ik [lumliei^Iaqd, 



SEYEiNTEENTH REUXIOX, SEPTEMBER 16, 1885. 



GRAND RAPIDS, MICHIGAN. 



ALSO, 



R.EMAR.KS AT THE BAISTQIJET. 



By r: d: mussey. 



CINCINNATI: 
EOBBET CLARKE & CO. 

1886. 



^4- 



ADDRESS. 



Mr. President, Comrades,^Ladies and Gentlemen : 

None can regret more than I that the comrade who has 
been announced to deliver the annual oration finds himself 
unable to be here to-night. I had promised myself, as among 
the chief of the many and choice pleasures of this Reunion, 
that I should hear him speak whose oratory is worthy — and 
there can be no higher praise — of the Army in which he 
served. Sickness detains his alternate, who Avould have 
filled, had he been here, his principal's place, and there is de- 
volved upon him who addresses you an unexpected duty, 
which he does not feel at liberty to decline so long as he 
wears the badge that recalls the memory of men who, indi- 
vidually and collectively, never failed to execute to the best 
of their ability the commands they received, how much so- 
ever they might question the wisdom of the orders given to 
them. 

Fortunately, the thenie is prescribed : if it were not, the 
occ^asion and this presence would suggest it. For, as the eye 
falls upon these comrades — comrades to-day as they were 
comrades nearly a quarter of a century ago — gathered from 
many a State and many an avocation, happy in their memory 
of the past, happy in the enjoyment of the present moment, 
and happy in their anticipation of the future; and then turns 
to rest upon this audience gathered to see them and bid 
them welcome with hearty and lavish hospitality, one can not 
fail to ask what is the history of that Army to which these men 
belonged, and what is the purpose of the Society that bears 
its name? 



Masseij's Address. 



The Army of the Cumberland was the central one of those 
great armies which, stretching from tlie Atlantic westward to 
the Father of Waters and beyond, for four years stood be- 
tween liljcrty and union on one side, and slavery and disunion 
on the other, and wliicli, throttling the })olitical heresy of 
secession, never released its grasp until both secession and 
human bondage were finally and forever dead, and ceased 
to be even remote and contingent possibilities in the future of 
our republic — this, in one woi'd, is what the Army of the Cnm- 
berland was. ]Iut how barrun and meager and inadequate an 
idea this concise statement conveys of the magnitude of the 
army — of its labor — of its toil — of its privation — of its cour- 
age — of its steadfastness — of its struggles — of its marchings 
and its couutc'r-inarehings — of its discipline — of its conflicts 
— of its loyalty ! There is no time to recite those in detail, 
nor is this the occasion to give statistics, eloquent though the 
mere figures would be. Xor would it be seemly in me, whose 
pride it is that he was a lurniber of that army, to attempt any 
comparison between the (pnilities that characterized tin,' Army 
of the Ciunherhiiid and those of other grand armies — the 
Army of the Potomac^ the Army of the Tennessee, the Army of 
the Oulf, ov othcvs; nov to weigh the value of its achieve- 
ments with the value of theirs. 

^'ft we can not forget that wc were fortunate in (niri)i)si- 
tioii, gc'ograpliii-ally aiul strategically. \Vc' formed the center 
aiifl pivot on whii'h riiluM- wing ri'lied in its advances upon 
the enemy's positions. No one need be told how unsj)eaka- 
bly disastrous it would Inive been had the center given way 
when tiio wings movecl. Surely we may say, and transgress 
no canon of pi'opricty, t lial the center nevei" did givewayl 
It was always lii-iii ; whatever gi'ound it gained it ke])t.ainl 
if either wing gained ground there was no obstacle that 
availetl to prevent the center keeping alignment with it. 



Mussey's Address. 



More than that, the center itself moved forward and taking 
one wing with it went East, cutting the Confederacy in two, 
and confining the armies of rebellion in a circle from which 
there was no outlet but " unconditional surrender." 

We can not forget either that we were fortunate in our 
Commanders. In wars of the people — wars, that is, that the 
people originate and maintain — the tirst step is enthusiasm. 
Masses must be moved and roused. Conviction may lay the 
fire and kindle it, but sentiment must fan it to a flame and 
spread the blaze. 

Our first commander was Robert Anderson, he wlio had 
borne the shock of the first hostile shot fired by one of its own 
citizens against our common country, l^o hero in a romance 
was ever so worshi[)ed as was Robert Anderson worshiped 
by tiie loyal people of the United States, after the bombard- 
ment of Fort Sumter; and to us, in our nascent state as an 
army, came this man, the very embodiment of the feeling of 
the hour; at once its pride and its idol. It seems to me as I 
review its history that this army never wholly lost the im- 
press of the early enthusiasm of that uprising of a great 
nation. Before our character as an army had been formed, 
while we were still flushed with the fever of our awakened 
patriotism, we had after Anderson, William T. Sherman, and 
though his stay was brief, I think I do not err in recognizing 
some endowment of us, by him, with his own marvelous ac- 
tivity and restless chafing under inaction. 

But enthusiasm will not suffice for an army — a mob is 
enthusiastic. To convert a mere multitude into an army, 
there must be organization and discipline. Though the iron 
be at white heat, it will not shape itself into a sword. Don 
Carlos Buell came to us and under his hand we became a 
compact and orderly body. The seething mass of unrelated 
particles, turbid with its own vehemence, crystalized into forms 



Mi4ssej/'s Address. 



fit, shapely and transparent. Under Buell, too, to recur to 
this fi<»iirc of the sword, the bhide was tempered by the fire 
and blood (^f.Mill S[iringand Sliiloh. Under Buell the army 
learned how to march as well as to fight. Berryiiville showed 
the temper and metal of the arn)y, and that it was ready for 
its work. 

At this point W. S. Bosecrans took conuuand. Stone 
]{ivcr, the Tullahoma cam[)aign, and that other battle, some 
call a defeat, but tlie anniversary of which we commemorate 
in the week of our reunion, Chickamauga — those sliowed the 
Ariiii/ of the Cambaiaml. m all the exercise and activity of an 
armv, as fighting, otfensive nnii-ching and strategic move- 
ment. I leave it to others to say how it stood these tests. 
This only I will say, we are not a>haincd of tlieni, and we are 
content to be judged by them. 

Tt was reserved for (Ji;o. II. Thomas, as our la^-t com- 
mander, to have with us the final experiences and trials of 
our ai-my. Undei- him it was subjected to the test of tinal 
victors' and eu'ioyed the fruition of its de\eloi)ed cai'eer. For, 
afte'r tin; battle ot Xashvillc and the dis[H'rsion of Hood's army 
there was no center of tiu- Confederates forces left, notliing 
but wings! Under the loyal Virginian the army was dis- 
banded, and ended the career begun under the loyal Iven- 
tuckian. i'^ortunate in its inception, our Aninj of t/ic Cionbcr- 
1(1)1(1 was I'oriunatc in its cmiflusiou. It is no disparagement 
of the others to say that ot all our coniniandcrs it was fittest 
that TiiuMAS should write" Finis" (Ui tlio last [lage of tjie 
volume. 

Our army was loyal to itself, loyal to its eon.niauders, 
and highest of all, loyal to (he cau>e. It njoiccd over every 
victory the allied armies w<jn, as if it were its (twu ; it was 
free from jealousy of them, and jealo\isy in its own ranks; in- 
trigue, conlCMtio!!, except with or against u connuou enemy, 



Mussey's .Address. 



were unknown to it. Loyal to its commanders to a degree, 
sensitive to any thing that might touch them, quick to resent 
any wrong done them, there was never a day in its whole life 
that it would not have done its utmost for a new and untried 
commander displacing an old, familiar and beloved one. The 
destruction of the rebellion, tiie preservation of the Union — 
these, under whomsoever accomjilished as the titular head 
and leader, were its objects; to these it was pledged by the 
holy sacrament of patriotic self-sacrifice. Amicvs Plato, ami- 
cus Socrates, sed magis arnica Veritas. Dear was "Rosey," 
dear to us was old " Pap '' Thomas, but infinitely dearer was 
our Country! 

The number of our battles was not very great — you may 
count them on your fingers I had ulmost said — but every bat- 
tle told. There was not one inconsequential and undecisive. 
Our marches too were not purposeless. There were few if 
any neater bits of strategy in the whole war than the Tulla- 
homa campaign. Bragg with a larger force was by a smaller 
one, by flank marching, forced out of middle Tennessee and 
we are not ashamed of that strategic marching, nordo we think 
it unsoldierly when we recall the praise, and merited praise 
too, that is given to the flanking of Johnston in the Atlanta 
campaign when the conditions as to numbers were reversed. 

The speaker was not in Chattanooga during its invest- 
ment ; so he may say, without offense, how heroic to him ap- 
pears the conduct of the Army of the Camherland in holding 
on with insufficient and daily diminishing rations for man 
and beast, " bating no jot of hope," or courage, or persistency, 
till the embargo was raised by those operations Avhich being 
planned, and far along toward execution by the Army of the 
Cumberland (and in which one of your citizens. Colonel P. V. 
Fox the Chairman of the Local E.Kecutive Committee, bore a 



8 Mussey's Address. 



conspicuous Jjart), were executed by the Military Division of 
the Mississi[)pi. 

Mr. Lincoln was afraid an Emancipation Proclamation 
would cause the loyal Keutuckians to throw down the arms 
they were bearing in the Union Armies, so a recent writer 
tells us; but Mr, Lincoln did issue such a proclamation, and 
of the twenty regiments of Kentucky troops in the Army of 
the Cumberland not enough realized Mr. Lincoln's fear to 
aftbrd the statistician a percentage. 

Such, briefly and imperfectly told, and as impartially as I 
may, was the Armj of the Cumberland. You, Comrades, 
know, better than any one can tell you, what it was, for you 
were of it; though you will not speak it, you are conscious 
of its worth and its nobleness. As you gave to it all that 
was ncjble in you of aspiration, of endeavor, of sacrifice, of 
achievement, it has ennol)led you with a patent (jf nobility 
which bears no monarch's approval and emanates from no 
despot, but is sealed with the red blood of hundreds of thou- 
sands, and written by the finger of justice dipi)ed in the grate- 
ful tears of 3,000,000 enlranchised blacks, and more than ten 
times that number of {vm' white Ameiican citizens, united 
with them in the possession of a common counti-y. 

The [lurpose of our Society is to keej) alive the memories 
of the War — not the bitter, not the hostile, not the uid<indly 
memories! Tict them sink into the pit of oblivion, which 
time, and events, and our national growth have tliiir for them. 
]Jut may the memories of those qualities that helped our 
Army — of devotion, of integrity, of fixedness of jmrpose, of 
Kelf-saerilice, of the earnest fullillmcnt of duty, of good- 
fcll<)w>hip, of brotherhood — bo ever gi-een I lict nc^ decay 
invadi', let no iVtist ehill ; let no sirocco blast tlu-ml For- 
ever, and torever, let them live nmlimnird in all their 
glory ! 



Mussey's Address. 9 



With them, too, let loyalty live— loyalty to Liberty, loy- 
alty to the Union, loyalty to Hanianity. Let there be no con- 
fusion. While we honor those who honestly opposed us, and 
commend them for their magniticent bravery, for their heroic 
struggle against privation and poverty of resource, and for 
their having the courage of their convictions, such as they 
were, let us never forget that, until every rule of accepted 
ethics is overthrown and reversed— until the instinct of self- 
ownership is eradicated from the human breast, until the Di- 
vine command is changed and we are bidden to do unto 
others the things we would not have them do unto us— until 
then let us tenaciously hold to it, never for a moment forget- 
ting it or putting it one side, that we were right and they 
were wrong. And let us gratefully thank the Divine Provi- 
dence which gave us clearness of vision to see the right, the 
heart to dare, and the hand to maintain ! 

Not only do we meet to refresh our memories, hut yours, - 
ladies and gentlemen, who were not of the army. Each 
reunion of ours teaches you— keeps before you the signifi-,- 
cance and extent of the struggle in which we were engaged, 
and draws your attention from the strident demands of a 
prosperous present to the cost at which it was secured, leads 
you to see the fundamental ideas which were then antago- 
nized—ideas which change not, though their manifestation 
and outward garments may— and so makes you better citi-, 
zens, and worthier workers for the common weal. 

Young men- "Sons of Veterans "—these were your 
fathers; thus they served their country; this they accom- \ 
plished' for it. Be worthy of them, emulate their virtues, 
shun their faults; and remember this, young men, that any 
Nation which is not prepared to defend its liberty, will soon 
cease to have any liberty to be attacked. 

Comrades, our ranks thin from reunion to reunion. For 



10 Mussey's Address. 



some of lis these reunions \\\\\ soon end; for all of us, at no 
very distant day. Till they do cease, let us be loyal to our 
past and to each other. Let us remember that there is still 
due to our country, from eacli of us, the exercise of every 
virtue that marked our service in its armies; that, in laying 
down our arms, Ave wei-e not absolved from our allegiance. 
To every work that makes for mankind, let us contribute 
what we can as cheerfully as we contributed to one s[)ecia] 
work twenty four years ago — ourselves. Let us remember 
that, because we wanted to be good citizens, we then became 
soldiers; that, as we desired to have a Nation in which citi- 
zenship should be a noble thing, we strove to be good sol- 
diers; that, in so far as we were good soldiers, we secured a 
Nationality of worthy citizenship; and that it is our duty to 
maintain the standai-d still. 

Let us be loyal to each other, cherisliing as tender and 
precious our meetings with each other; and, as one after an- 
other drops by the way and joins tiie majority, let those of us 
who remain draw closer to each other. 

Let us rest assured that, so long as our services are so 
remembered as they are here — where beauty of decoration 
and warmtii of reception hut feebly ty[)ify the welcome our 
good friends have tor us in their hearts, our comrades did jiot 
die in vain, and that a " govi'mnicnt of the jieoplc and by 
the pcoiile and for the pcojile shall not iierish." 

1 i'ecl how iii:iile(piatc is all tliat you have listened to, to 
exprc-s the ideal of liio soldiei' of the Ar/iii/ of the Cmiihcr- 
land, and 1 know you will thank me for citing from Words- 
worth's "(character of the llaiipy Warrior, ' the jioet's surer, 
clearer, litter deseri|itioii of the (puilities that inhere in the 
real sohlier of a free count r\'. 



Mussey's Address. 11 



Who is the happy warrior ? Who is he 
That every man in arms should wish to be? 

* * * * 

'T is he wliose law is reason ; who depends 
Upon that law as on the best of friends ; 
Who labors good on good to fix, and owes 
To virtue every triumph that he knows ; 
Who, if he rises to station of command, 
Rises by open means, and there will stand 
On honorable terms, or else retire, 
And in himself possess his own desire; 
Who comprehends his trust, and to the same 
Keeps faithful with a singleness of aim ; 
Whose powers shed round him in the common strife, 
Or mild concerns of ordinary life, 
A constant influence, a peculiar grace; 
But who, if he be called upon to face 
Some awful moment to which Heaven has joined 
Great issues, good or bad for human kind. 
Is happy as a lover; and attired, 
With sudden brightness, like a man inspired; 
And through the heat of conflict keeps the law, 
In calmness made and sees what he foresaw; 
Or if an unexpected call succeed, 
Come when it will, is equal to the need. 

* * * * 

'T is, finally, the man who lifted high. 
Conspicuous object in a nation's eye, 
Or left unthought of in obscurity — 
Who, with a toward or untoward lot, 
Prosperous or adverse, to his wish or not — 
Plays, in the many games of life, that one 
Where what he most doth value must be won, 
Whom neither shape of danger can dismay, 
Nor thought of tender happiness betray; 
Who, not content that former worth stand fast, 
Looks forward, persevering to the last. 
From well to better, daily self surpast. 
Who, whether praise of him must walk the earth 



12 Mussey's .Address. 

Forever, and to noble deeds give birth, 
Or he must fall to sleeji without his fame, 
And leave a dead, unprofitable name — 
Finds comfort in himself and in his cause. 
And, while the mortal mist is gathering, draws 
Ilis breath in confidence of Heaven's applause. 
Tliis is the happy warrior; this is he 
That every man in arms should wish to be! 

Wordsworth wrote these words ten years before George 
H. Thomas was boni. They are so apposite to that ideal 
soldier of the Army of the Cumberland that the poet seems in 
them to have voiced his prophetic prevision of that noble 
man. And I am snre that each one of yon wlio lias heard 
these lines has been filled with gratitndc that it was his 
happy fortune to have served in an army that had for its 
commander one to whom such words ap})ly ; and, to some de- 
gree, to have been himself swayed by the same motives, sup- 
ported by the same confidence, and capable of the same 
service. 



AT THE BANQUET. 

THE AT^MY OF THE CUMBERLAND." 



The President, General Sheridan, said : 

Our next toast, comrades, is " The Army of the Cumber- 
land," to be responded to by General Mussey. General Mussey's 
kindness has been a good deal taxed at this Reunion ; but he is al- 
ways ready when he is called upon for duty. 

RESPOI^SE OF R. D. MUSSEY. 

Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen : 

I understand the speakers at this Banquet have been directed to 
be short, even if they can't be sweet ; and (looking at his watch), as 
this is to be a sort of limited express arrangement, I will try to limit 
my expression. 

My friend here (General Fullerton) has given you some per- 
sonal reminiscences, and if you will permit me, I'll indulge in some 
of my own. 

At one period of my life I was a Reporter on a daily paper ; as 
such Reporter it was part of my duties that I should report the com- 
mon scoundrels — no — council — I mean. That was in Cincinnati, in 
the State of Ohio, which you heard of last night ! That paper, by the 
way, has, since I left it, become a very good paper. 

On one occasion when I was discharging my duties at the Coun- 
cil Chamber there was a very heated debate, and one of the members 
who had been roughly handled by his fellow members got up to rejjly. 
He proceeded to murder the king's English and berate his colleagues 
at a terrible rate ; and drawing himself up to his full height, and 
swinging his arms most threateningly said : "]\[r. President, I'd have 
you know, sir, there is a point where virtue ceases to be forbearance." 



IJf. Response to Toast. 



Now, I want to tell you, Mr. Presideut, aud you, Mr. Secretary, 
who sit there smiling away as if you were free from all guilt in your 
treatment of me, that I adopt the sentiment of the Cincinnati Council- 
man ; and before I say any thing in response to this toast, I want to 
gi\'e fair notice that I inte:id at till future meetings of this Society, to 
have a good tin)c, untroubled by any anticipation of making a speech 
in the place of some one who has dropped out. 

The-^rm^ of the Cumberland has sometimes been thought to have 
been an Ohio Army. There was some talk last night that looked that 
way ! But, I'm sure, that hereafter, when we recall your treatment 
of us, how you've captured and captivated us here, we shall be a 
Michigan Army. Indeed, looking at these tables [there was no wine 
at the Banquet], it would seem that this Army had been recruited, 
originally, at Coldwater, and got back home again. 

Tliere's General Siieuidan of our Army. Wliy, last night some 
of you Michigan people tried to make out that ho was a Miciiigander. 
And while we were riding about your beautiful city this afternoon, 
some one in the carriage with me said that was so ; that Sheridan 
started from this city of Grand Bapids, into the war, and was grand 
aud rapid all the way through. 

Is it rjuitc fair to ask me to speak about the Armi/ of the Cinnber- 
lundl I was a member of it, and though my connection with it was 
not of much (•(jnsefjuencc to the Army, I can't say what 1 think of 
that Army, without, in a certain sense, shocking my own modesty! 
Aofi to talk t<M/nM, who nia(h' the Aniuj of ike Cumberland wiiat it was, 
alioul it, is the sheerest waste of time and hi-eatli I You know for 
yourselves, 1)( Iter than any can tell you, what that Army was and 
what it did! 

1 recall, a- you all do probalily, the story of the arehilect of St. 
Paul's ('atiu-drai. There arc moiuimi-iits and iiuiiiorial tabh'ls all 
around its walls, bearing the i'eatures or the names of I^ngland's 
Worthies. liut of the architccl himself, to him who composed " this 
iivmn to (iod, sung in oiicdicnt stone," there is no statue. At ]a>t 
you see his name, lliough, and tin- legend: Si nniiiiitiirntiiin tjiiarii', 
cirnuitHjjin' — " If you sj'ck to see his monument, look round yon." 



Response to Toast. 15 



And so I would say to you who did not know the Army of the Cumber- 
land as we did—" Look 'round you ! " Especially would I say that to 
the ladies up there in the galleries by themselves. If you want to 
know what and who the Army of the Gamherland was, look down at 
these tables and see what havoc they have made. 

Right, here, may I indulge in a little bit of complaint? The truth 
is I havn't been able to get through the bill of fare. I think it was 
a deep laid scheme on the caterer's part— this placing the Indies up 
there in the galleries. For when any thing was put before me and I 
would begin to get ready to eat, my eyes would wander in the direc- 
tion of the galleries and before they got down to the table again, my 
plate was gone, and the waiters had gone by with two or three more 
courses ! They say hunger is the best sauce. Perhaps it is. But, as 
a married man, it is my conviction that there is a sauce to be obtained 
from the other sex much sharper than huuger ! 

To get back to the Army of the Cumberland. If I can't speak for 
that old Army, I may say a word about the " adopted" members of 
it ; and the members in the second generation ; the wives and the boys 
and girls who are proud that their husbands and fathers served their 
country when their country needed their service, and happy that that 
service was in the Army of the Cumberland. I know that those who 
are not here are aching to be here to.night ; I know they would be 
here but for duties at home ; I know they have our thanks for their 
cooperation in arranging that we should get here. So for as my ex- 
perience and observation go, these adopted and junior members, of our 
Army of the Cumberland, are an Army of which any nation might well 

be proud. 

There is another portion of the Army of the Cumberland which will 
never sit at our tables again; with whom there will be no Reunion 
here. We must go to meet them ; they can not come to meet us. 

I tried last evening to say something about the quality and tem- 
per and virtues of the Army of the Cumberland. I omitted though to 
name one characteristic of the Army of the Cumberland possessed by 
them in common with all the Armies of the Union. It sxas-Religion. 
Yes, I mean it— religion— I know it may sound strange to some of 



16 Response to Toast. 



you. But think a moment. What is the beginning of the religious 
life, but ohi'dieiice, obedience to a sense of duty? What is the relig- 
ious life, but a life that sui)()i-ilinatcs self? That yields up eveiy thing, 
even life itself, for the good of otliers, and in fealty to a higli idaal ? 
These men gave up all for their country, and for humanity; they 
bravely daied to do and die that the nation should live and the slave 
be free, and I claim f )r them, the crowning liuinan virtue — religion. 

I dare to say it for them, that never since the crusades — nay, not 
even in the crusades, uhen Europe sent forth her thousands of armed 
Knights to march to the Holy Land and rescue the Holy Sepulcher 
from the hands of the infi<lels — did an Army march out with such deep 
devotion and such high ])urpose as did our Armies in the last war. It 
is a Divine Truth, that he who would save his life must give it, 

Never, in all history, not even in the crusades, was there au Army 
that marched out to set free the captive, to deliver the persecuted, to 
let the oppressed go free, who chose as their Army song a declaration 
of faith in the immortality of the soul. Tiiink of it! Over two mill- 
ion and a half of men chanting as they marched 

"John Brown's bod}- lies moldering in the {^rave, 

His SOUL r.OKS MARCIIIXG OX ! " 

The dead of tlie Armii tif Ihr Ciii>ihi'rla)t(l ! Their bodies molder 
in their graves; ])ut thrir souls go marching on. On — on — on — down 
through all time — sd hjug as the Tnion endures — so long Jis Liberty is 
assured — so long as Patriotism exists — their memory and their influ- 
ence, linked hand-iu-hand, shall >lill march on I 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



573 ^bl 8 




